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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

momofuku crack tart

some years ago, i can’t remember how long, when i lived on the other side of town, the rowhome i lived in was newly renovated, but the neighborhood itself was not hip to the trend yet. the back of the house faced a rather shady alleyway and the backyards of dilapidated rowhouses of the street over. directly across my dressing room i had quite a view of a particular backyard that was turned into the outdoor den of a couple of drug addicts. this concrete yard housed overgrown shrubs, a few trashcans, and a green loveseat. there may have been a broken down tv, but i could be lying.

i know. welcome to baltimore hon! if you know me, and if you’ve been reading this space long enough, you know that i would not find this type of scenario alarming, if anything, it was amusing, and an educational opportunity.

one weekend night, when i had cousins over for a nice visit, we were playing dress up in said dressing room (what, you guys don’t still play fashion show as adults? pity.) i happened to look out and behold, my druggie neighbors were in residence and they were about to shoot up. so, as we prepared for a night out, while we were in, we watched these two people prepare to inject drugs in each other's arms.

i won’t get into the nitty gritty, just know that it took about 30 minutes for them to do much of anything. their slow, laborious movements indicated that they were already high, they were just getting another fix. (notice how i’m saying all this like i’m in the know with all this…) after they were done, that’s when i called the police and we watched that scene unfold, too.

now, i know it wasn’t crack they were doing, cus they weren't smoking (and, besides, it’s whack!). so it had to have been heroin (or the extremely off chance they were giving each other insulin shots). regardless, that lot was fenced up and i never saw those people again.

in the meantime, this is in our fridge right now, i've had it for breakfast, tea and dessert. i love ky horse racing pie more but this tart, it's addictive. chewy and sweet and thankfully, much easier to acquire than actual crack.

i won't write out the entire recipe but i will say that i used earth balance's soy margarine in lieu of butter, ghirardelli's chocolate powder instead of the milk powder, and so delicious' coconut creamer in place of the heavy whipping cream. it should be noted that the amount of sugar i used for both the filling and crust was scant amount, what can i say, i'm a bit stingy with the sweets. this recipe yielded one rectangular tart pan, 3 mini round tarts.

I love all of the modifications you made to the recipe and it looks so gorgeous in that tart pan.

There are a few things I do not miss about Baltimore and the massive addict population is one of them. I witnessed all kinds of ridiculousness and am happy to be away from it. As me some time about the alley behind first my apartment in Fells. It was never dull.

Such a crzy story, Lan!... I hope those neighbors you usea to have found sobriety and peace. On the other hand, what the heck! your new lens is kicking so much ass. Look at that depth of field!! way to put it to amazingly beautiful use. I love David Chang and Christina Tosi and i'm sooo happy that you found a way that you and dw can eat this! i need to make it for us. on one of my "long run" days, I think! ;) how is training going for you guys?!

Crazy story. I lived next door to a couple of junkies in my very first apartment, which was weird because I lived in a pretty nice Chicago suburb (but really crappy apartment). But also not weird because the truth is, that shit is everywhere. Anyway, needless to say my neighbor was nuts and was always asking to borrow money. Glad those days are over!